Charles Sheeler (July 16, 1883 – May 7, 1965) was an American painter and commercial photographer. He is recognized as one of the founders of American modernism and one of the master photographers of the 20th century.
Early life and career
Charles Rettrew Sheeler Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, attending the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, now the University of the Arts (Philadelphia), from 1900 to 1903, and then the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under William Merritt Chase. He found early success as a painter and exhibited at the Macbeth Gallery in 1908. In 1909, he went to Paris, just when the popularity of Cubism was skyrocketing. Returning to the United States, he realized that he would not be able to make a living with Modernist painting. Instead, he took up commercial photography, focusing particularly on architectural subjects. He was a self-taught photographer, learning his trade on a five dollar Brownie.
Sheeler owned a farmhouse in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, about 39 miles outside Philadelphia. He shared it with his longtime friend the artist Morton Schamberg (1881–1918), who died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. He was so fond of the home's 19th century stove that he called it his "companion" and made it a subject of his photographs. The farmhouse serves a prominent role in many of his photographs, including shots of the bedroom and kitchen and stairway. At one point he was quoted as calling it "my cloister."
Sheeler painted using a technique that complemented his photography. He was a self-proclaimed Precisionist, a term that emphasized the linear precision he employed in his depictions. As in his photographic works, his subjects were generally material things such as machinery and structures. He was hired by the Ford Motor Co. to photograph and make paintings of their factories.
1920 Manhatta (with Paul Strand)
1917 Doylestown House: Stairs from Below (Metropolitan Museum of Art)1927 Criss-Crossed Conveyors, River Rouge Plant, Ford Motor Company (Metropolitan Museum of Art)Church Street El (1920) – The Cleveland Museum of Art, ClevelandStill Life (1925) – M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San FranciscoLady of the Sixties (1925) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, BostonUpper Deck (1928–1929) – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York CityAmerican Landscape (1930) – Museum of Modern Art, New York CityAmericana (1931) – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York CityClassic Landscape (1931) – Barney A. Ebsworth collectionView of New York (1931) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, BostonInterior with Stove (1932) – National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.River Rouge Plant (1933) – Whitney Museum of American Art, New York CityAmerican Interior (1934) – Yale University Gallery, New HavenCity Interior (1936) – Worcester Art Museum, Worcester
In 1940, Fortune Magazine published a series of six paintings commissioned of Sheeler. To prepare for the series, Sheeler spent a year traveling and taking photographs. Fortune editors aimed to “reflect life through forms … [that] trace the firm pattern of the human mind,” and Sheeler chose six subjects to fulfill this theme: a water wheel (Primitive Power), a steam turbine (Steam Turbine), the railroad (Rolling Power), a hydroelectric turbine (Suspended Power), an airplane (Yankee Clipper) and a dam (Conversation: Sky and Earth) [1].
Conversation: Sky and Earth (1939) – Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort WorthPrimitive Power (1939) – The Regis Collection, MinneapolisRolling Power (1939) – Smith College, NorthamptonSteam Turbine (1939) – Butler Institute of American Art, YoungstownSuspended Power (1939) – Dallas Museum of Art, DallasYankee Clipper (1939) – Rhode Island School of Design, ProvidenceInterior (1940) – National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.Fugue (1940) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, BostonAmoskeag Canal (1948) – Currier Museum of Art, ManchesterWindows (1952) – Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York CityConversation Piece (1952) – Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-SalemAerial Gyrations (1953) – San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San FranciscoNew England Irrelevancies (1953) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, BostonOre Into Iron (1953) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, BostonStacks in Celebration (1954) – Dayton Art Institute, DaytonArchitectural Cadences Number 4 (1954) – Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort WorthLunenburg (1954) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, BostonGolden Gate (1955) – Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York CityOn a Shaker Theme (1956) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, BostonRed Against White (1957) – Boston Museum of Fine Arts, BostonComposition Around White (1959) – Collection of Deborah and Ed Shein"Charles Sheeler: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs" – Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 4 – November 1, 1939."Paintings by Charles Sheeler" – Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, November 2 – December 2, 1944."Charles Sheeler: A Retrospective Exhibition" – Art Galleries, University of California at Los Angeles, October 11 – November 7, 1954. Toured November 18 – June 15, 1955 at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego; and Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth, Texas; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, New York."Charles Sheeler Retrospective Exhibition" – Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania, November 17 – December 31, 1961."Charles Sheeler Retrospective Exhibition" - March 17 – April 14, 1963 - State University of Iowa, Department of Art."Charles Sheeler" – National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC, October 10 – November 24, 1968. Toured January 10 – April 27, 1969 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York."Charles Sheeler: Across Media" – National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, May 7 – August 27, 2006. Toured at the Art Institute of Chicago, October 7, 2006 – January 7, 2007; and the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, February 10 – May 6, 2007. 50 works included, including paintings, photographs, works on paper, and a film."The Photography of Charles Sheeler" – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Toured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 3 – August 17, 2003; the Detroit Institute of Arts; and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Nearly 100 works, including 90 photographs.1958 - Oral history interview with Charles Sheeler, 1958 Dec. 9, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution1959 - Oral history interview with Charles Sheeler, 1959 June 18, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
